Beware of Dog
(US); (UK) | Production =10213 | Writer =Naren Shankar | Director =Tony Tilse | Guests =Wayne Pygram (Scorpius) | Episode list = | Prev =Look at the Princess - The Maltese Crichton | Next =Won't Get Fooled Again }} Moya has parasite problems and John starts seeing Scorpius everywhere. Synopsis John Crichton is in his quarters, playing chess and mumbling to himself. Aeryn Sun questions what he's doing, and he sees a vision of Scorpius implanting something to remember him by. Aeryn wonders if he might be suffering the effects of long-term space travel, but he doesn't want to talk. Rygel is in the cargo bay, where the crew are storing food that they recently procured. He asks Zhaan where Chiana and Ka D'Argo are; apparently food in this region is often infested with parasites and they are finding a cure. Suddenly, some containers topple over, making Rygel jump. Chiana and D'Argo return with a Vorc – apparently it will seek out a species of parasite and eradicate it completely. The parasites killed a ship of over 200 people and so Aeryn suggests jettisoning the food before a problem occurs. The Vorc pees over D'Argo, and then runs off, with Chiana chasing. Crichton is playing "golf" (or at least a rather modified Moya version of it), when he hears a noise in the ventilation shaft. On inspection he sees a creature, which he fires at but it runs off. Aeryn and D'Argo arrive on the scene but can't find any trace of the creature, and seem to think Crichton was imagining it. Rygel comes along to protect his food, but D'Argo, already aggravated, makes him smell the Vorc piss in his clothes. Crichton guesses that he saw the Vorc, but when Aeryn describes it, he realises that it wasn't. Zhaan is sorting out the food in the cargo bay, when containers start falling over and she is apparently attacked... Chiana comes along with a cage and they try to capture the Vorc. It avoids them, but Aeryn gets a hold of it by the neck. It bites her and runs off. Pilot and the DRDs can't find Crichton's creature and after talking with Aeryn he thinks that Crichton may have been imagining it. Crichton hears something, and after creeping around he ends up pointing his gun at Rygel, who was checking his cargo. Chiana and D'Argo are searching for the Vorc in hopes that it'll lead them to the parasite. Aeryn enters her quarters and steps in some poop. On seeing the Vorc on her bed she hits it in the face and tells D'Argo that the Vorc is there. While she speaks to him, the Vorc starts humping her leg, but then smells something and suddenly runs off as Aeryn follows. In the cargo bay, the creature that Crichton saw is now stalking out Chiana and Rygel. Chiana goes to hit it, but it smacks her to the floor. D'Argo arrives, but it attacks him and runs. Rygel is trying to bring D'Argo around when Crichton comes in and checks on Chiana. When D'Argo comes around and says the parasite is real, he starts convulsing so the others call Zhaan. Zhaan has cleared D'Argo's wound, but apparently he has a secondary infection and Chiana is anxious about his health. Crichton and Aeryn are searching for the parasite, but they find the Vorc instead. As Chiana and D'Argo talk, Zhaan discovers that D'Argo has been poisoned and it's killing him. Zhaan tells Crichton that they need a live sample of his blood so they must keep the parasite alive. Crichton is watching DRD surveillance on a clamshell when Scorpius appears on it and says, "You'll never see it coming, John." Zhaan has set up D'Argo in a part of Moya so that he will get continuous air to help him breathe. Rygel joins them, apparently not wanting to be alone. Aeryn is carrying the Vorc on her back, trying to find the parasite. Moya shakes and Pilot says that the DRDs have found the creature. It's above the chamber where Zhaan is, but it leaves the airlock, and approaches Chiana. She shoots at it, but Crichton grabs her and reminds her that they need it alive. Pilot manages to lock the creature in command, but the three don't find it. Crichton sees Scorpius again and then finds the Vorc. It starts to shake and spews out the parasite! They knock it out and take it to Zhaan. Zhaan finds no toxin in the parasite's blood, so they don't understand what happened. Zhaan says that D'Argo's respiration is failing and he won't last much longer. Chiana is talking to D'Argo and blames herself for D'Argo's condition. Crichton is trying to figure it all out and says that the Vorc can't have poisoned D'Argo and Aeryn realises that something else must have. Crichton suggests asking the Vorc, which Aeryn thinks is deranged. She doesn't have a better idea though, so they go with it. They inject it with translator microbes, but Aeryn doesn't think it understands so she suggests killing it. It gets upset, so Crichton tells her to take it back. Pilot seems to understand it using a form of non-verbal communication. It starts repeating "friend" so Crichton asks what it wants. "Bad danger here" is its reply. It says that it can kill the parasite if they free it. They agree that their only choice is to trust it. They follow it as Rygel tells them that if it comes near him, he'll kill it. It turns into the huge creature and Rygel tells Pilot to fuel a transport pod. In the cargo bay it is after Rygel, and Crichton and Aeryn come in, telling him to say that he's its friend. It finds Rygel and he bites it, but it overpowers him. Rygel is badly injured, and the creature runs off. Rygel is being healed by Zhaan, who found massive traces of toxins in his wound. Both Rygel and D'Argo will die without an antidote. Aeryn and Crichton find its blood, and as Aeryn follows it, Crichton sees Scorpius behind her and shoots at him. She jumps, wondering what he was doing. They spot the creature but miss and realise that it's leading them into a trap. In the cargo bay, they manage to shoot it, but see a huge cocoon... Zhaan continues her analysis, as Chiana watches over D'Argo, when bugs suddenly start emerging from Rygel's body... Aeryn says that Chiana told her the parasites leave cocoons behind and they find Rygel inside! Rygel tells them he was cocooned for his offspring to eat and farts helium, proving that he is the real Rygel. Crichton and Aeryn run off and the parasite Rygel attacks Zhaan... Crichton and Aeryn run in and shoot it, and it explodes into loads of bugs, which Crichton kills with some coolant freezer. Rygel tells D'Argo and Chiana what it was like in the cocoon and wonders how they could be fooled. D'Argo says that it was a perfect copy, but Rygel says he's fortunate the courageous Vorc was here to rescue him. Aeryn is holding the Vorc and Pilot says that it is happy. It knows its time is near. Aeryn says that she is so sorry, and it dies in her arms as she cries. Crichton, pulse pistol in hand, is playing chess with Aeryn sitting across from him. She asks him what he was really firing at when he nearly shot her and he says that he's been having flashes of Scorpius like he's talking to him and only to him. Aeryn asks what he is saying and Crichton says that Scorpius tells him he's going to get him, that he already has but Crichton just doesn't know it yet. Aeryn asks him why he didn't kill Scorpius when he had the chance and Crichton says that he tried, but he couldn't – something inside stopped him. Aeryn says that if he needs help... but Crichton says that he's not going to lose his mind – it's all he has left. Aeryn leaves and Scorpius appears, telling Crichton that he'll never see it coming. Crichton gets him in checkmate and says "you lose," but Scorpius says that that wasn't the trap he meant... Memorable quotes :Rygel: What, they ran out of places to defile up here, so they had to do it in a transport pod? :Chiana: Our parasite problems are solved. :Aeryn: Rygel's decided to leave us then, has he? :John & Aeryn: (simultaneously) Sorry about the mess. : Scorpius: You'll never see it coming, John. When the trap closes, it will be too late. : John: You think? Checkmate. You lose. : Scorpius: That, um... wasn't the trap that I meant. (Smirks maliciously) Background information * The Tandoori chicken references came from Ben Browder's initial reaction to the creature on set. ( ) *The idea of putting the Vorc on Aeryn's back was Claudia Black's idea, who was inspired by Yoda riding Luke's back in . ( ) * Much of the dialogue between Aeryn and Crichton was ad-libbed in rehearsal. ( ) * Tony Tilse used as inspiration for the scene with the scurrying bugs. Most of the bugs were simply raisins with legs attached. ( ) * The scene with the Vorc dying was originally scripted for the larger creature. It was obvious that the larger creature was not capable of the emotional pull needed, so it was rescripted. ( ) * The producers were inspired by for the episode. ( ) * Crichton references and quotes Bill Murray's groundskeeper character specifically while he golfs in Moya s corridors. ( ) * Browder felt that the ball Crichton played with in the episode was the same one Scorpius had in "Family Ties" and thus an early manifestation of Crichton's insanity, but David Kemper told fans shortly after the episode's broadcast that they were unconnected. ( ) * Guy Gross pays homage to 's score with his music in this episode. ( ) * In the first draft of the script, Crichton had a discussion with Zhaan. Browder questioned that saying "It's the right scene, but it feels like it's in the wrong place and with the wrong person." The scene was originally in the opening act, and Browder and the writers discussed it, moving it to the tag and setting it between Crichton and Aeryn. Browder continued, "John and Aeryn have so much interaction that it makes the stakes emotionally high because he spends so much time with her, and she has her doubts about him. It also means that she and John don't take the next step in their relationship because she knows he's got a problem. She's keep his confidence... she's not telling anybody. The audience knows, of course, but nobody else on the ship knows. I don't think that he's thinking about home when he's talking to Aeryn. I think his problems have become so great that, even at this stage, he knows that if he goes home, he takes the problem with him. Maybe it'll clear up, maybe it won't, but he knows there's something afoot. There's something going wrong in his head, and he's coping with it the best he can." ( ) * Browder enjoyed the episode and felt that it laid out a number of clues to the rest of the season. "One of the things that I like about Season 2 is that there is a layered long arc, and you can go back and look for clues. So in that way the show stands up to repeated viewing." ( Links and references Starring * Ben Browder as John Crichton * Claudia Black as Aeryn Sun * Virginia Hey as Zotoh Zhaan * Anthony Simcoe as Ka D'Argo * Gigi Edgley as Chiana Guest stars * Wayne Pygram as Scorpius Puppeteers * Tim Mieville * Sean Masterson * Graeme Haddon * Mat McCoy * Mario Halouvas * Virginia Weule Voice artists * Jonathan Hardy as Rygel * Lani Tupu as Pilot * Virginia Weule as Vorc References Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves; amnexus; arn; Aurora Chair; Caddyshack; cargo bay; Caribbean; checkmate; chess; Cinderella; Command; dice; DRD; dren; Ewok; Farscape-1; food cube; frell; game show; Gammak Base; golf; Helium flatulence; Human; Incredible Hulk; Invasion of the Body Snatchers; Ka Jothee; Khalaan; Lassie; Leviathan access shaft; Luxan; maintenance bay; marjool; Moya; neural cluster; "open sesame"; pulse pistol; putter; Riddler; scrubber; Sparky; Star Wars; Tandoori chicken; Transit Madness; translator microbe; transport pod; Uncharted Territories; Vorc; yotz External link * Category:Season 2 episodes